Journals and Posts

I bought this stoneware hotel plate in a little junk shop in West Auckland a number of decades ago just because it amused me and it was only a couple of bucks. I am amazed I have owned it this long without actually breaking it yet it has survived over 25 years of use off and on.
I'm interested in finding out more about it, though. After some previous aborted attempts at finding out anything of its provenance, recently I think I had a breakthrough on some of the history.
There was a Joseph Sherlock/Shirlock McConkey who ran a tearooms in Palmerston North in the 1910s named the 'Kosy.' Seemingly he emigrated alone from Ireland in the mid 1890s and had some history in Wellington and also possibly Masterton in different professions before he relocated to the Manuatu-Wanganui area, by which time he was describing himself as a confectioner. In the late 1920s he appears to have moved to Auckland where he was in catering briefly before retiring. I think this plate comes from the Auckland period of his career, although I have no evidence he ever ran any kind of business during this time. Other than that, there's little explanation for how it ended up in Glen Eden, where I found it If you have anything to add, please leave a comment below.

I'm looking for information on Dick's Milk Bar, Henderson, in the 1950s-1960s. It was apparently "a few doors along from ANZ bank on Great North Road." Although there were a couple of older cafes that had hung in there, like The Tradewinds which I was taken to for lunch often as my father had his business almost opposite it, I certainly don't remember Dick's still being there when I was a child.

Judy Julian wrote: "Dick's Milk Bar was in the Ozich Buildings and was along from Railside Ave (Station Rd) towards Valley Rd. I am not sure what is there now - could be a locksmith. My dad used to go down to Dick's on a Saturday night to get the 8 o'clock and a couple of bob worth of mixed lollies."

In this image from the 1950s, a light up perspex sign under the awning on the left says "MILK BAR." Image entitled "Ozich Buildings completed, Henderson." unknown date in the 1950s, courtesy of J. T. Diamond Collection, West Auckland Local History Online, West Auckland Research Centre, Waitakere Central Library, ref JTD-14A-03975-1.

This image is noted as being 'cousins Matthew and Kenneth Avidon.' These were passed on from my great grandfather's sister's side of the family, the Greenshpoons, who asked if I knew of them. The image was taken by a studio based in Feodosiya on the Black Sea in what was then Crimea but now the Ukraine. To the rest of the world it was all simply 'Russia'. An older Matthew was photographed with Itta's husband alone, later on in life, again Matthew was noted as being a 'cousin', so this indicates that the Avidons were likely his nephews rather than being related to the Zam family. Avidon is quite an uncommon name, so I have been able to find out that Matthew left the Ukraine and arrived in New York in 1922. He states he was from Feodosiya, where my family, the Zams, were also from. Matthew married Rose Tapo and had two sons, John and Kenneth born 1936 and 1937. They seemingly spent time in Queens, NY, Illinois briefly, and later Florida. There are still Avidon descendants in the U.S. today and I believe that John or Kenneth had a son they also named Matthew Avidon who is still alive. I am posting this in the hope that there is someone out there who can make the connection as to which female sibling of either the Greenshpoon or Zam family married an Avidon.

Update: I am now in touch with the Avidon family and we have worked out the relation.

He specialised in glamour pin ups and cereal card albums. Clients for the studio included Mosgiel Woolens, Bell tea, and 'Peter the Pilot' for Timaru Milling, who seemed to be a mainstay client.

The earliest record I've found for his work, or the work of 'Carr Advertising Studios' is 1944 and the latest around 1955, after which time he seems to disappear. He signed all his work quite obviously with a distinctive signature (see image).

I have trawled through thousands of records from 1944-1958 and found little, which is odd. Although Carr was a common name with thousands of references - which isn't helpful - I've also explored the possibility that 'Carr' was shortened from a longer name like 'Carroll', 'Carruthers', etc. Still no luck.
The best possibility so far and a tentative one, is a certain Roy Carr who was ascribed profession draughtsman and resided at 340 Mt Eden Rd, in 1958. I'm hoping someone will run across this and know something.

My family came from Feodosiya (now the Ukraine) to Glasgow. In the western world everything was just "Russian" back then. From there they spread out around the world (Brighton, Hove, Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, Wellington). However recently I ran across some Zams in a British phone book, risiding in London, who appear to be Jewish, so I would say they are likely relatives. It must be as far back as "the old country" in the generation of my great-grandparents because I am not aware of them. They seem to be present in the UK from the 1930s to at least the 1960s.

It's possible Nahum was a cousin of my grandfather's. The only additional information I have is that Nahum, Eugenie and Anna were living together at 42 Sevington Rd, Hendon, in 1949. It's possible one of them may still be alive.

I am trying to make a connection with a branch of the family that settled in England, which I don't seem to be able to find out anything much about, so I suspect they changed their name.

My great-uncle Myer's son Isaac Louis Slatopolsky (1904-1980), known as Issie, left Glasgow where my Ukrainian family were settled, and married Catherine Violet Woodhams at Paddington, London in 1929. Catherine's parents were Arthur John Woodham, and Mary Catherine nee Croot. The couple were living in Ely, Cambridgeshire at the end of the 1940s.

They had two sons that I know of; Frederick John, and Louis M., born 1932, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.
Frederick adopted his mother's name and married Queenie Eileen Winfield (1928-1973) so the branch descended from him as Woodhams. I should point out the s is often left off the end in documentation meaning that the name Woodham is often used.

Something interesting I found whilst writing this is that Frederick John was born three years before Issie and Catherine married, and his birth was registered as Frederick J. Woodhams. This indicates he was born out of wedlock. I also noticed that Catherine's sister Kathleen Marjorie Woodhams had a child Frederic John born 1926 with an unknown partner. It's possible, especially as the mother's first name is not mentioned in the birth entry - that it was Kathleen's illegitimate child and that Issie and Catherine took him in and treated him as a son.

Whether Louis changed his name to Woodham - or something else perhaps - I don't know, but it's likely as almost all my family did so they sounded less Jewish. It was a common practice to have a gentile name or just outright change your name to something Western sounding.

Both (half?) brothers had a number of children as well as grandchildren. It's really Louis's side I am more interested in since I have no information at all, as well as he is the legitimate blood line.

There is a tree set up on Mundia for this branch, and most of it is private; contacting the owner has led to no response.

I am seeking information on John Osborne of Auckland, New Zealand, known to friends as Johnnie.

He was likely born between 1920-1925. The family resided in the area of the bays along the south shore of Auckland Harbour - so Okahu Bay , Mission Bay, St Heliers, Howick etc. One snippet I was able to find out is that while he was in his late teens to early twenties, his father, apparently a GP,died suddenly.

He attended art school at Elam around 1943-1945 or possibly as late as 1947 and was friends with some well-known commercial artists such as Linwood "Lin" Lipanovic who created some of the iconic TEAL airways posters. He was very active in the Arts community attending many Arts Balls and other events in Auckland in the 1940s and 1950s.
Johnnie founded a commercial art service named JO-EB Studios in the mid-late 1940s. Obviously, the JO part is his initials, but who EB is I do not know. There were a few people in his years at Elam with surname B: Baker, Brightwell, and Bailey. Auction house Art + Object sold a large lot of his commercial illustrations in July 2009.
He never married and was living in Glendowie, Auckland in the early 1990s.

I've found so little information on him that I strongly suspect that John was not his government name. I'm hoping someone will recognise him from my description and add to the information for a story.

I'm looking for descendants of the Broughton family in Sydney, Australia to see if they can shed any light on the life of my first cousin, his wife and their child.

The Broughtons were in the Newtown, Marrickville, Petersham and Ashfield areas clustered in west (now classed as inner-city) Sydney. They came from Argyle, NSW and spent some time in Crookwell before moving closer to the city.
Marjorie M Broughton was a granddaughter of Richard and Sarah Ann J Broughton (nee Wright). She married my first cousin Nat Morris in 1931.

Marjorie was a machinist in the garment trade and prior to marriage she was living with her mother in Palmer Street, Darlinghurst. Seemingly there was no father present and none is listed on the birth record leading me to believe that Marjorie's mother, Amy Clara/Clair Broughton (1883-1934) bore Marjorie out of wedlock. Amy continued living at Palmer Street until her death three years after Marjorie and Nat married.

Nat was from a Russian-Jewish family of Glasgow where he started out life as Larten Slatopolsky. He took Nathan as his gentile name, a common practice to seem more Western. The story goes that he absconded from Scotland without telling anyone, leaving the family "heartbroken" as it's relayed, and came to Australia. Here he shortened his first name to Nat and took his father's first name as his new surname, thus becoming "Nat Morris" (and more or less untraceable). The family eventually tracked him down somehow but he refused to have any contact with them in his new life.

Marjorie and Nat settled in Newtown where Nat worked as a presser in the garment trade. They had one known child, Frank Nathan Morris, who died at a few years old in 1937 (I'm guessing he was five or six at the time). Presumably the line then died out.

I'm hoping there may be descendants of Amy's six siblings (including her twin, Ethel Virginia Broughton, known as "Virgie") who may have some information on the couple.

Below advertisements from The Sydney Morning Herald,Tuesday 23 May 1922, for Sarah Ann J Broughton's death lists most of her children, their spouses and grandchildren.

I am seeking descendants of my first cousin Frederick Medvidoff aka actor Freddie Earlle. He was born 1924 Prestwick, Scotland to my great-aunt Mannia (Mannie) and her husband David Medvidoff. They later changed their name to Taylor,and Freddie had two brothers Maurice and Albert who both used the hyphenated version Medvidoff-Taylor.
Unlike his brothers Albert and Maurice, who went into the wholesale garment trade like so many of the family, Frederick wanted instead to be on the stage. His early career was in vaudeville as a comedian in the late 1940s, and soon progressed to actor/writer/director in the music halls.

His first wife was Freda M Pearlman, who took the stage name Freda Mundy,in 1950. He, now as Freddie Earl, and Freda had a successful act as "Mundy and Earl", sharing the bill at times with Laurel and Hardy, Frank Sinatra and Gypsy Rose Lee, amongst other superstars of that era. He divorced Freda and married Naomi Mendel in 1958 subsequently having three children, a son and two daughters, from this second marriage. I do not know any of their names. At some point in the 1950s they moved to England and stayed here for the next few decades.

In the early 1960s he changed the spelling of his last name to Earlle and it was then he had television success between the late 1960s and early 1990s as a character actor. Amongst some of the well-known shows he appeared on were Doctor Who, The Bill, Hi De Hi! (ironically a comedy about the very place he used to perform as a comedian), Robin's Nest, Dad's Army, Yes Minister, Bergerac, Coronation Street - as well as children's TV show Rainbow.

His career seemed to wind down in the late 1990s, and he retired to live in Spain in 1998. and died in Estepona, Malaga, Andalucia in 2007.

I am attempting to get in touch with the Hind family of Glasgow. My great-aunt Sonia Slane(nee Zam)had a daughter Eleanor who married Archie Hind. Archie, who passed away in 2008, was primarily famous for his novel "The Dear Green Place" which has come to be considered a Scottish literary modern classic of sorts. Apparently Eleanor is still alive and living in Scotland.

I am particularly interested in New Zealand food and drink history but I often meander off the track to related topics like commercial artists and children's games. My wordpress blog on that is here: http://longwhitekid.wordpress.com/